It's about time Shield oath and Grit become Abilities instead of Spells. (off-GCD)

[Saeno]

You CAN fix it by copypasta wars actions. That fixes the problem, but also will have far reaching effects on tanks as they weren’t all built that way and this is a blunt instrument for a very specific and targetable problem. But also, as you pointed out, I like number changes not redesigns for just that reason. You can ALSO fix it by reducing the resource cost (MP, number fix) or making the cost give a better (damage) return (via number fixes!), or some combination of both (Number^2!!! /swoon). But with the latter solutions, the problem is solved in a targeted fashion with less collateral damage (unintended consequences), jobs retain more individuality, and is considerably lighter on dev time vs ability redesigns. All of which is much, much more preferable imo.

I'm trying to wrap my head around the idea of making tank stances feel more equal without making them oGCD and I've come up with some silly ideas that I personally don't think are viable solutions.

The main and biggest difference with the tank stances is the raw DPS that WAR has access to compared to PLD and DRK. I would count the MP, but the MP can be made into DPS so it may as well be included. The second difference how quickly WAR can make use of their bonus enmity as opposed to PLD and DRK, who do gain an instant mitigation effect but cannot immediately utilize the enmity generation on the same window that WAR activates its stance. The main takeaway here is that everything turns into DPS loss for the PLD and DRK all because they are losing that GCD. That GCD spent on Grit/Oath could have been used to continue an MP generation combo or work on aggro.

So understanding the weaknesses of Oath/Grit compared to Defiance,the only realistic solution for PLD/DRK that does not include their stances becoming oGCDs is making the application of Oath/Grit DEAL DAMAGE. The damage dealt would make up for the MP loss as well as the GCD, since the stance is now more or less its own GCD. To me, that is a VERY silly idea for the stances to deal damage, but it's the only one that would make the balance even between tanks.